


Choice

by SML8180



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Pre-Canon, idk how to tag this, it's just chloe/kamski backstory stuff, sort of fluffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-11-07 06:37:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17955443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SML8180/pseuds/SML8180
Summary: Elijah wants to make his creations more functional and relatable, but isn't sure how to go about it. He gets an idea when he isn't able to decide what snack to eat. He just hopes that he can get it right.





	Choice

It was simply another late night for Elijah, listening to the rain patter against his window while music played in the background as he worked. His prototypes for autonomous androids were coming along well. They were able to walk and perform on their own without issue, and he’d gotten them to speak without it seeming too stilted or robotic. But something still felt off to him. It didn’t seem as if they were complete, in a way. He just couldn’t pinpoint the issue. The man sighed, taking off his glasses and setting them on his desk. He leaned back in his chair, rubbing his hands over his face and through his hair, looking over at the blonde android that was sitting completely still on the table beside his desk.

The android appeared simple. She had neat blonde hair that fell around her shoulders, fair skin, and bright blue eyes. Elijah had put a simple white dress on her before working fully on her skin replication, and had kept it on her since. He liked it, but wanted to try a test of some sort with her in the future. He hadn’t even given the android a name, at this point.

“What am I going to do with you?” he mumbled, looking at his creation. He was given no response, seeing as the blonde was in a sort of stand-by mode. Not fully shut down, but not able to give input or recognize anything that wasn’t programmed directly into her via the laptop and cables she was connected to. “What makes us so different? We both walk, we recognize surroundings and situations and people. So many similarities, what is the issue?”

Elijah sighed, getting up from his chair to pace around the small space. His apartment wasn’t much, considering it was what he could afford at the time. Despite his success in school, developing Thirium, and now even creating functioning androids, he was having trouble getting his biggest idea off the ground. Right now, CyberLife was little more than a large, and fairly popular, crowdfunding campaign. He needed something to make his androids seem more human, more relatable. Despite all the work he had put in, they were still a bit uncanny to spend time around.

He paced for what felt like ages, just trying to think of something. He only stopped when his stomach gave a loud growl. Elijah hadn’t realized how late it was getting, nor that he hadn’t eaten since he had lunch. With a sigh, the man approached the bag sitting beside his stationary creation. He pulled out a few things from the bag; a new mug he’d treated himself to, a packet of hair ties, and a pair of dresses he’d gotten in the same size as the one currently on the android beside him. One dress was a warm pink, the other a deep blue. Without thinking much at the time, he set the two articles of clothing aside with the other purchases, before pulling out two packets from the bottom of the bag. One packet contained trail mix, something Elijah often relied on when he needed something quick to snack on, and the other simply contained Skittles. That one had been more of an impulse purchase; he hadn’t had the candy in some time, and couldn’t resist.

The man looked at the two choices in front of him, finding that he couldn’t choose between the two options. Then, he froze for a moment, before looking at the pink and blue dresses, and back at the snacks in his hands. It was like a lightbulb went off as he tossed the trail mix back onto the table and went to his laptop. The Skittles were set on the desk by his side as he furiously typed in the command to activate the android on the table. While she booted up, becoming aware of where she was, Elijah stood and picked up the dresses from the table beside her.

“Is there something you need, Mr. Kamski?” she asked. Despite Elijah’s constant insisting for the android to call him by his first name, she still kept to formalities. It was something he would have to look into at some point. For now, he’d ignore it.

“I was thinking of changing your outfit. The white is nice, but, it’s a bit sterile,” he mused quietly. He pulled out the two dresses so that the android could look them over. “I wanted you to have input. Which one would you rather wear?”

The blonde was quiet for a moment, the LED on her right temple spinning yellow for a short time, before returning to blue. “Whichever you would prefer, Mr. Kamski,” was her answer.

Elijah frowned a bit. “No, I want you to choose.”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

The man gave a soft hum, setting the two dresses by the android’s side. “No understanding of choice, then. You don’t have preferences?”

“No. I am programmed to execute tasks and make conversation, not to make choices. What you prefer is what I accept.”

Elijah nodded a bit, sitting back down at his desk. He put the android back into a stand-by mode and started to type in new lines of code to run as a test. Having desires and making choices were human qualities that he hadn’t even considered including. But, that left something open. If an android was given one order, it could work just fine. The same if given a list of things to do. Though, if he had given the android a set of tasks in an odd order, they would still be executed in that same order, even if it wasn’t the correct way to do things. He’d run tests in giving this android a set of tasks to perform, but never specified which had to be done first, then second, and so on. In the end, nothing had gotten done, and Elijah just couldn’t figure out why.

Now, he knew exactly why. He’d given something that couldn’t make decisions a choice. Tried to order something to perform a task that it wasn’t programmed to. With a small smile, and a few fruit-flavored candies in his mouth, the man went about correcting his creation’s programming. It was several hours before the program was finished, and he yawned a bit, brushing away a few stray locks of hair as he got the android to boot back up.

“I hope this works…” is all he mumbled to himself as she looked around a bit.

“Is there something you need, Mr. Kamski?” she asked him politely, tilting her head a small bit.

Elijah picked up the two dresses again, presenting them to the android. “Which one would you like?”

If not for the rain outside and quiet music still going in the background, it would have been dead silent as Elijah waited for a response. He didn’t show any preference, didn’t make any suggestions. He just wanted to see what his creation would do with the new code running through her head. After some time of simply watching the LED on her temple spin yellow, he started to wonder if there was still a mistake somewhere, and he was about to put the dresses aside once again to go back and comb through the lines of code to figure out what could have gone wrong. But, just as he was about to set the clothing down, a slim and gentle hand came to rest on the blue dress.

“You want to wear the blue one?” despite his attempts to seem calm, but he cracked a small smile. Personally, he liked the red dress, but he wasn’t going to say that.

“Yes. I like the color,” was the android’s simple response, before she gave her usual pleasant smile.

Elijah set down the red dress, handing the android the blue one. As he was about to start disconnecting the cables that connected her to his laptop, an idea struck him. He stopped his motions, and looked at his creation, and she looked back at him, calm as ever.

“What would you like to be called?” he asked. It was a long shot, considering her choice making protocols were still so new, and he hadn’t given her any options this time, but he wanted to see what she would do. Once again, several quiet moments went by. The android’s LED spinning yellow over and over again. Finally, it stopped, turning blue once more.

“I quite like the name Chloe,” she finally answered, looking at her creator hopefully.

“Chloe. I like that name,” he smiled, typing in a new line of code and updating her systems. “Register your name, Chloe.”

The blonde android gave a smile, holding her blue dress in her hands. “My name is Chloe.”

“That it is,” Elijah confirmed. He couldn’t stop smiling at this point, as he disconnected all the cables connecting Chloe and his laptop. Afterwords, he helped her off the table and onto her feet. “Go and get changed, Chloe. I’m sure you’ll look brilliant in blue.”


End file.
